6:00 AM Alarm goes off and time to get ready for the official beginning of football season; My trip to Lehigh Valley for Eagles Training Camp. The hour and a half ride there seemed effortless as we talked football the entire ride. We walked into find great seats at exactly 8:15 at the start of the day. We were on the offensive side of the field where Donovan, Westbrook, and Curtis were the whole day.
The first drill of the day was just a simple receiver drills and running back catching drills. Donovan worked with the running backs in the flats while Feeley and Kolb were strictly throwing to the receivers on quick outs. Nothing to special happened during this drill. The drill then went into skeleton offense, where the crowd really started to get into it. Shouting “Show Me the Money” when Westbrook got his first touch of the day, and “Andy your looking good” in regards to Andy Reid’s shapely curves. During this drill, young receiver Jamal Jones seemed to get a bulk of the attention; dropping 3 passes within 30 minutes, the crowd really got onto him. After each pass he dropped, Reid pulled out his red pen and wrote into his little notepad (I wonder what that means… )
Soon after Skeleton Offense, the secondary came over with the new addition Asante Samuel(who limped off the field later in the day), and frustrated Lito Sheppard. This seemed to be the highlight of the day as we had the opportunity to watch 1 on 1′s. The 2 largest cheers came from Brian Dawkins; the first time, he tried to jam at the line as the receiver swam by him. Dawkins had a speedy recovery and quickly jumped the route and nearly picked it off. The second major cheer from the crowd came when Dawk lined up against speedster DeSean Jackson. Jackson straight up out ran Dawkins by making 2 cuts to the inside and leaving him in the dust.
The whole team came together shortly after a few other small drills and ran live. They started with the flee flicker(which they practiced at least 4 times during the morning) but it was quickly shut down and forced the untouchable Donovan to scramble. This seemed to be a majority of running plays, a few screen passes, and a reverse to Lorenzo Booker.
After the morning session, I went to go check the linebacker autograph booth for my lottery #. Only off by 60, oh well. I didn’t see Omar giving autographs any way. We then headed home after deciding to not hang around for the 2:15 session. Hopefully I plan on making one more trip to Lehigh to sit in on another practice.
Here is a list of players that impressed me and dissapointed me. For the most part this list does not include any of the teams stars. Donovan, Curtis, Westbrook, the starting secondary all had great mornings. Unfortunately, I did not get to concentrate on the lineman or linebackers much.
Who Impressed Me:
RB Lorenzo Booker – Will cause defenses confusion with a 2 back set of Booker and Westbrook.
RB Ryan Moats + RB Tony Hunt – Hunt had a huge crowd of Penn State fans, and Mighty Moats had a few nice little scurry’s.
WR DeSean Jackson – Lightning Quick
WR Greg Lewis – Had some quality grabs throughout the morning
TE Brent Celek – I believe he has great potential as a tight end, he made a few solid catches in the day
CB Therrian Fontenot – Very physical as a corner, looked tough
S J.R. Reed – Looked good out there as he received a pitch on an interception to take it to the house
S Brian Dawkins – He had more intensity from anybody on the field today, the crowd loves him.
Who Disappointed Me:
QB AJ Feeley and Kevin Kolb – neither quarterback had a good day as it seemed they were throwing away balls left and right.
WR Jamal Jones – At least 3 drops on the day. Major dissapointment, except I have never even heard of him before today…
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